The Legend - a Tribute

What a weekend for sports. One of most exiting finish in the history of F1 races where the world champion of 2008 remained a secret for last 5 seconds. England were beaten by Stanford superstars to win whopping $20 million. But one event which every cricket follower in India would remember for a long time would be the retirement of Indian Cricket Test Captain, Anil Kumble!

I still remember the day i became fan of Anil Kumble. It was finals of Titan cup against South Africa! The unbeatable side then. Tendulkar was captain. India were on the verge of victory and Kumble was bowling his 10th over and last man was @ crease. He happened to be Allan Donald. Till then i was fan of Anil Kumble just because he hails from my state. The commentator guy was praising Anil Kumble. For a second i wondered if the commentator was exaggerating a bit. The last ball of his spell changed my view about the Great Gem of India for ever. Sachin took all the time in the world to clean the ball with his handkerchief to remove every trace of the dew. I was murmuring "Just finish the match. It is the last wicket and India will win". And Anil bowled last ball of his spell and little Donald could do! The ball was unplayable and it ricocheted into the wood work. ( India used to lose many matches then ) India have beaten South Africa and clinched Titan Cup. The ball pitched outside the off stump. The batsman came forward to defend. The ball took a sharp turn and it's next stop was the middle stump! That one ball made me realize what a great bowler he is!

There is endless list of his achievements. The Jaw dropping moment when he bowled with broken jaw and took two wickets ( took Hooper off a No Ball ). And who can forget his amazing 10 wkts in an inning feat against Pakistan. He was the lone century maker when India last toured England.

When he called it a day, what a send off he got from fellow players. He bowled first ball of his last innings after shaking hands with Australians. I have never seen any cricket player getting that sort of farewell. It is irony that the person who is going to take over captaincy from Anil's shoulder carried Anil on his should for a 'farewell' lap through Kotla ground. This series was supposed to see grand farewell of our 'Dada' (we'll see it next week). Kumble became 1st of the fab 5 to go! And he signed off with a spectacular catch of his own ball despite injured finger. Hat's off to you Kumble! You are one of the legends of modern cricket. See you in second season of IPL.

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Well, it very long since i wrote anything in this space. Sometimes i lacked subject to write, rest of the times required passion to write was missing. After long time i got a 'perfect' subject to write one.

So, what exactly does 'perfect' mean. Shall we conclude that a person or a place or a picture or a vehicle or a movie is perfect when we feel there is nothing wrong in it or we feel nothing else needs to be added to complete it? How many times we have stumbled across such things? Me experienced such perfection recently. It's the movie 'The Dark Knight'.

As soon as i finished watching the movie, i was dumbfounded and there was 'no comments' to make! It went on to become my all time favourite movie surpassing 'Judgement Day' and 'The Matrix'. Let me confess! i watched the movie forgetting the actual world. The movie took me to that 'other' world as soon as 'The Joker' enters the scene.

Each and every aspect of the movie was impressive. It started from the direction! Boy! what a job he has done! Every movie i watch, i try to find some mistake. I found none in the movie! Even in the legendary 'The Matrix' i was able to make about small rope holding the duplicate from falling down. And in few scenes i was able to recognize the duplicate. Hats off to director and editor who made the visuals look real! All the special effects seen were awesome! Imagine few meters long trunk somersaulting in the middle of a road! The graphics! eyeballs of 'Two Face' moving together when half of the face is disfigured! wow! All the actors did their job well! I wish there was IMAX theatre in my city to watch the sequences which were shot using IMAX camera.

Finally, 'The Joker'. I have seen Heath Ledger's movies earlier. I appreciated his acting earlier too. But his acting in the movie! it's absolutely mind blowing! starting from the scene one, every times he comes on screen, he sends chilling sensation in you! Even when he is smiling or laughing look into his eyes to believe it! I hope there will not be any sequel to this movie with some one else portraying 'the Joker' (It is rumoured that next instalment will have heath ledger's unseen footages which were originally shot for this movie! unconfirmed though :) ). As tipped he might get Oscar for his role posthumously. My opinion is it's a must watch movie and it's not made for kids!

eat it!

Since we are on our way to Chikkamagalooru this weekend for a trip, i wanted to know what kind of local special food do we get there . I asked shashi and he replied,'coffee'. Sarcastically i said " I was taking about eating". His response " coffee powder!".